Email

Print

Today the  Friends for Conservation and Development - which co-manages the Chiquibul issued its most recent situation report on gold panning in the Chiquibul. The news is that despite serious deployments of manpower, resources and conservation posts, the Guatemalan gold panners continue to push into Belize.  But, because of the presence of Belziean law enforcement, they have changed their tactics.  The FCD notes that since the post was installed in 2012, the gold panners have dispersed, but they haven't gone away.  Instead, they have learned how to elude the patrols.  In the first year, things seemed to be going well, the BDF soldiers, police, and FCD rangers detained many gold panners.  But, the panners started studying the patrols’ movements and timing and they dispersed to other areas of the Ceibo creeks - those are, the Ceibo Chico, Ceibo Grande and Mal Pago.

And the result of that is that the FCD report, quote, “Today the impacts in plain view is much bigger than it was in 2012 when we estimated up to 300 gold panners.â€￾  But because the panning activity is now widely dispersed across a 5,000 acre area, the FCD cannot say quite how many there are. But, the effect is felt. The FCD concludes, quote, “what is obvious is that the watershed; the wild life and forest are disappearing every year.â€￾  They note that Gold panners have “deliberately set the forest on fire and large tracts of land have been denuded…â€￾.

And what will reverse this trend?  Well the FCD is calling for a “sustained, credible deterrence in the highest ridges of the Chiquibul-Maya Mountains.â€￾  But for that, they’ll need a serviceable access road and transportation for the troops and rangers who currently have to walk 20 miles down an arduous road carrying loads of more than 50 pounds. FCD says if the road is upgraded, more patrols and…support can reach the area more quickly, and detainees could be extracted more efficiently. 

The FCD says that the impact and the threat level are very high.